Occasionally questions arise if churches are exempt from paying sales tax on purchases or if they are obligated to pay sales tax if they occasionally sell rosaries, religious cd’s or books to their parishioners.

Generally churches are obligated to pay sales tax on purchases, unlike private and parochial schools who are exempt from paying sales tax when purchasing items to be used exclusively in the operation of their school. There is a single sales tax exemption for churches regarding the purchase of certain books such as bibles, hymnals, text books and prayer books.

Generally churches are exempt from collecting and remitting sales tax on sales at events when the entire amount is expended for charitable or religious purposes. The only exceptions are if the gross receipts exceeds $10,000 for an event if the event is in a public facility or receipts are from activities if the seller competes with retailers.